Investing In Spain – Details, episodes & analysis

My guest today is Joe Haslam, Executive Director of the Owners Scaleup Program at IE Business School & Professor at IE University

• Joe Haslam
• Owner's ScaleUp Program, IE University

In this conversation, Joe provides counsel and advice to those interested in jumping into the Spanish tech ecosystem, both expats considering a move to Spain and young founders contemplating a new venture.  He's also a fantastic story teller, with a wide ranging perspective on the past twenty years of tech growth in Spain.

Enjoy this conversation with Joe Haslam.

Chema Molina started Frenetic in 2014 while in graduate school in Power Electronics.  The company offers an online platform for magnetics design, sampling, and production, dramatically reducing the time for designers to interate when developing critical components for electrical processes.   

• Dr. Chema Molina
• Frenetic

Frenetic is an example of Spanish Deep Tech, one of the most rapidly growing areas of the Spanish tech market today. With a number of leading research centers producing PhDs each year, Spain is well positioned to develop a robust pipeline of startups in materials science, climate science, AI and beyond. 

In this conversation, Chema and I talk about developing a company from an academic background, and the evolving support network around Madrid and Barcelona to support such companies.  Chema also recently moved to the US to be closer to customers, while the company is still headquartered in Madrid. We talk about that transition, and considerations for Spanish founders thinking about a move to the US market. 

Chema is insightful and funny throughout.  This was one of my favorite conversations so far - enjoy.

Rory 

My guest this week is Sergio Gonzalez, co-founder of Piper AI:

• Sergio Gonzalez
• Piper AI

Along with his two co-founders, Sergio is building Piper as a generation AI CRM.  He comes to the challenge after years leading sales ops and sales teams at world class companies (Google, Twitter, Stripe, Job & Talent). 

In our conversation, Sergio names the 'false premise' of CRM systems today - the idea that sales teams will consistently put in the data needed to get actionable insights from a CRM.  Piper is building a solution that addresses this fundamental challenge.  

We cover:

• Moving to Madrid at a young age, and studying abroad for college
• Building an international career
• Lessons learned from leading teams in great companies
• What Piper is building and why
• Building and training models for AI products 
• Making the transition from large companies to being a Founder

Sergio's story fits well within the Investing in Spain thesis.  Piper is international from day one, developing initial customers across Europe.  With the growing global importance of industry specific AI applications, Piper is a noteworthy startup not just for Spain, but globally.  Enjoy this conversation with Sergio Gonzalez. 

My guest his week is Haydee Barroso, founder and CEO of Atani:

• Haydee Barroso
• Atani Exchange

Atani is a European-regulated company that has built the first crypto broker that enables access to all the crypto market with only one account. Atani aggregates the liquidity of top exchanges (centralized and DeFi) so users can access all the coins with only one KYC. 

Haydee's story fits squarely within the thesis for this show:  Atani is a one of one tech company building a unique technical product.  Haydee and team are globally ambitious, already serving over 300,000 customers from all over the world. 

In this conversation, we cover how Haydee and her brother Paul are building this company, and why they are doing it from Madrid.

• Haydee's early professional experiences, and advice on skills for entrepreneurship
• Finding Bitcoin in 2013 and shifting career focus
• Innovation & regulation in the banking industry in Europe
• Why Atani exists
• Serving customers in the crypto space
• Building Atani as a platform

In the last part of our conversation, Haydee talks about building the Atani technology platform in a way that they could open up core services to others similar to how Amazon opened up AWS.    If you are long crypto markets in general, the Atani team is one to watch. 

And, here's the 2011 Wired article about Bitcoin mentioned in our conversation:

https://www.wired.com/2011/11/mf-bitcoin/

Enjoy, 

Rory

My guest today is Jose Bayon, CEO of Enisa.

• Jose Bayon
• ENISA

ENISA is a state owned company integrated into the Spanish Government’s Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Tourism. ENISA's mission is to promote entrepreneurship and support small and medium sized businesses throughout Spain.  Last year, ENISA provided over 100M Euros of funding to Spanish startups.

I wanted to talk with Jose about the work ENISA does throughout the Spanish startup ecosystem.  We discuss:

• the Startup Law, and the impact on startups
• the rise of new hubs of innovation in Spain, beyond the traditional areas of Madrid and Barcelona
• the role of ENISA in providing catalytic capital to the ecosystem
• the next stage of growth for venture in Spain, and what needs to happen to improve the ecosystem overall

After talking with many investors and founders directly, this conversation provided me a broader lens on the ongoing transformation in Spain.  At least according to Jose, there is wide support for continued investment and policy change to accelerate the entrepreneurial economy in Spain as a key lever of future growth. I found this conversation helpful in understanding that broader economic goal. 

I hope you enjoy this conversation with Jose Bayon.

My guest today is Isabel Rodriquez, Partner at King & Wood Mallesons:

• Isabel Rodriquez
• King & Wood Mallesons

Isabel is the head of the Investment Funds team at King & Wood and the preeminent attorney in Spain for all things venture capital.  She advises LPs and GPs in structuring and establishment of domestic and international investment funds (including venture capital), secondary transactions, carried interest arrangements, co-investment plans and other related transactions such as restructuring of funds or creation of special purposes vehicles for investment into private equity.  

Isabel shares her expert perspective on the challenge for Spanish venture firms raising capital from international investors.  We cover:

• History of regulation in Spain
• Typical fund structures for VC and PE in Spain
• Tax considerations
• Compliance costs for local VCs

This conversation solves a riddle for me in this inquiry - there are added costs and complexities for Spanish GPs, but not from the side of Spanish regulation.   Enjoy this conversation with Isabel. 

My guest today is Juan Montero, Founder and CEO of Fence.

• Juan Montero
• Fence 

Fence is building internet native debt capital markets.  The first offering is a SaaS product that allows asset based lenders to monitor a portfolio of loans in real time.  The service went live earlier this year to support BBVA's €20M lending facility with Payflow. 

I talk with Juan about:

• Growing up coding as a student in Madrid
• Early experiences learning about business models
• Defi Summer
• The Fence origin story
• What success looks like for Fence and its customers
• Juan's views on tech in Spain right now.

Like Fence, this conversation touches on crypto, existing bank infrastructure, building products for customers that matter, and optmism for the future.

For disclosure, I met Juan soon after moving to Spain this summer and have since talked with him about his company and vision many times.  I believe this product has significant potential, as I share in the introduction to our conversation. I wish Fence was around when CircleUp started our lending program.  I became an investor in Fence in early November.

Enjoy this conversation with Juan Montero.

My guest today is Rika Christanto, Partner at LifeX Ventures.

• Rika Christanto
• LifeX Ventures

Rika is a global investor, based in Madrid.  She and the team at LifeX invest in software and AI companies focused on improving outcomes in health and climate.  Rika is also a builder, having been COO at two different Spanish startups.  We talk about

• the climate and health care markets today,
• the perspective gained when investing globally from Madrid
• US vs Europe AI innovation
• what she looks for in founders

Here is the Endeavor Report on the Spanish Tech ecosystem referenced in the conversation:

https://lp.endeavor.org/spaintechmap

Throughout, we learn more about what to expect from the LifeX team as the portfolio grows and what it takes to to build a globally focused fund from Madrid.  Rika brings operating experience building startups in Spain and a global perspective to her investing - enjoy this great conversation.

Rory 

My guest today is Gioia Cerbelli, VP of GP Bullhound and co-founder of Calafia Syndicate.

• Gioia Cerbelli
• Calafia Syndicate

Gioia brings a wide lens to our study of the Spanish venture market, advising founders when selling their company to large international investors, and also investing personally at the very earliest stages.  Our conversation covers:

• How the Spanish market is weathering the current environment
• The pace of change for local founders and investors over the past five years
• The exit market, and how it is evolving

Gioia also shares her own entreprenurial experience,  creating a new network of female investors investing in globally ambitious Iberian founders. 

This conversation highlights for me both the energy and the increasing complexity of the Spanish venture market - many things are happening all at once, sometimes contradictory.  Enjoy

My guest today is Carina Szpilka, General Partner at K Fund. 

• Carina Szpilka
• K Fund

Carina and her partners founded K Fund in 2016, marking an important milestone in the growth of the Spanish venture market.  The K Fund founders emphasized operating experience, focusing on partnering with their portfolio companies to build great products and companies.  Today, K Fund manages over 500M euros.  

Carina and I discuss 

• The impact of the recent Spanish Startup Law, a law Carina helped pass in her role as then President of Adigital.
• How the Spanish venture market has changed in the past 7 yrs 
• The relationship between VC returns and the Spanish economy
• K Fund's growth into Latin America
• Her philosophy for investing
• And more

Here is the Deal Room report referenced by Carina in the conversation

Spanish Startups and Venture Capital - 2023